The world’s largest submillimeter camera—based on superconducting technology
designed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—is now
ready to scan the universe, including faint and faraway parts never seen
before.

Mounted on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the NIST
technology will help accelerate studies of the origins of stars, planets and
galaxies.

The new 4.5-ton SCUBA-2 camera, which contains more than 10,000 of NIST's
superconducting sensors, is far more sensitive than its predecessor SCUBA (the
highly productive Submillimeter Common-Use Bolometer Array), and will enable
astronomers to map the sky hundreds of times faster and with a much larger field
of view. SCUBA-2 will produce better images and sky maps, image new targets, and
support deeper and broader surveys.

The product of an international research collaboration, SCUBA-2 will image
objects ranging from comets in the Earth’s solar system to galaxies at the far
ends of the universe. The camera is sensitive to objects associated with very
cold gas and dust clouds, which absorb visible light (and therefore look black
to optical telescopes) but emit the barest whiffs of submillimeter radiation—at
wavelengths below 1 millimeter, between the microwave and infrared bands.
Submillimeter light oscillates at terahertz frequencies, hundreds of times
faster than cell phones.

“The submillimeter is the last frontier in astronomical imaging,” says NIST
physicist Gene Hilton, who developed the fabrication method for the NIST
instrument. “It’s been very difficult to develop cameras that work at this
wavelength, so the submillimeter is largely unexplored. We’re excited to see
what SCUBA-2 will reveal.” Watch this video on how NIST is making a difference in viewing young stars, planets and galaxies. Release